Wednesday, 13 December 2017

Northern Okinawa: Kouri Beach and Yuiyuikunigami Rest Area

Finally finishing up my Okinawa recap (almost two months after the actual trip) with the last two places that we visited, both located in the Northern area of Okinawa. For the masterpost click here.

Kouri Island Beach
While this wasn't a "beach trip", I really wanted to visit at least one beach. From what I could find on Google, Kouri Island Beach was supposed to be a really beautiful place to visit.

And it was!

The drive on Kouri bridge was amazing! The views are fantastic and I can see why it's a tourist landmark.

Parking here will cost money (if you want to park near the beach). The place where we parked also had changing areas, a shower area, and floats and parasols for rental.

After we parked, we headed back to the bridge for a few shots. The guidebook recommended walking across but we wanted to head to the beach as soon as possible so we didn't venture very far.

View of the beach from the bridge!

I really, really love the waters of Okinawa!

There are lots of things to do on this beach but it'll all cost some money. And as we didn't bring a beach mat or umbrella, we ended up handing over some cash for some shade.

I wasn't really in the mood for swimming, but it was really relaxing to go barefoot on the sand and read a book by the waters!

I would totally recommend going to Kouri Island beach! It's really beautiful and if we could have gotten accommodations there, we would have loved to spend the night.

Yuiyuikunigami Rest Area

While we were in the area, we decided to have lunch at Yuiyuikunigami Rest Area, which is the northernmost rest area in Okinawa. One thing that came up over and over again when I was researching is that each rest area in Okinawa has its own specialties. And from the few that I've tried, they also serve cheap and delicious food.

The food court is in a separate area of the rest area.

Lots of boar featured in the menu and it was surprisingly delicious.

Both my sister and I couldn't finish our meals and they were among the cheapest that we had. They were really tasty too!

From the website, I read that their cafe is famous.

Everything is made in-house and delicious! And much cheaper than what I find in Kyushu or Tokyo. My favourite was the cream puff.

There's also a pretty big omiyage corner with lots of local products.

Including some local jellies.

They even have a mini-exhibition on the wildlife and various traditional items from the area.

If you're looking for cheap and good places to eat in Okinawa, you should definitely visit one of the various rest areas.

And that concludes my really, really long recap of my Okinawa trip. I don't think I've ever done a recap this long and I think it's a pretty fitting end to my journey in Okinawa. All that's left is one last post on what I did before I left, I guess?